1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an artist's color chart device for assisting a painter in making color charts.
2. Background Information
Art students are often asked to create a series of color charts as an immediate learning experience and as a reference tool for periodic use throughout their careers. Making color charts is a systematic process that teaches the student about color. After having worked on a set of color charts, the art student can usually predict with greater accuracy what X amount of a dominant color plus Y amount of a selected color with the subsequent addition of white will look like on the canvas or other painting surface. These color charts are used by the student as a training tool or, later on, by the more experienced artist to see color more accurately. Art students often retain their color charts for years, pulling them out periodically to refresh their recollection. Normally an art student will create about a dozen color charts, each with a different dominant color. The completed color charts may serve as a reference throughout an artist's career.
However, making color charts conventionally is a tedious task. First, the art student must purchase the right supplies, and then paint small, evenly spaced squares on Masonite boards using a paint brush or a palette knife, for example. Usually, the student must be taught how to apply tape strips to each board, leaving appropriately sized squares for receiving the chosen paints in prescribed proportions. The art student then gradually adds the selected dominant color to the other colors of a chosen group of colors (the palette) in a specific orderly fashion and, with the addition of white paint, gradually lowers the value mixture down the column, painting each color value in the appropriate square. A different colored paint may be substituted for white to lower the value, but white is preferred. Once the student has applied the various values to the squares, he or she removes and discards the tape, which is a messy task, and sets the painted board out to dry. This must be repeated twelve or so times, depending on the number of colors in the student's palette or the number of boards being included in the student's set.
Although most art students enjoy the painting part of this process, most of them dislike procuring the appropriate supplies, taping the boards, and, later, removing the messy tape. Thus, there is a need for an artist's color chart device that will assist art students in the production of color charts and make the color chart production process less time consuming, easier, neater, and more satisfying.